I've written about 3 songs on the button box. One of them came to me in a dream (a waltz), and the other two, both shuffles, came to me just from noodling. On a toy accordion at that. I thinking better lying down, and I just had the toy accordion on my chest, just playing around.
One of the songs is stage worthy. The waltz needs some work but could be stage worthy, and the third one has some issues. Not that any of them are great, mind you.
The biggest thing is gaining a facility with the box where either, you can play what you hear in your head (not always possible for me), or, you've played enough other licks that others have written that some of them start stringing together in a unique way that is all your own.
I have a single row box. Double row confounds me.
Diatonics are not logical instruments. FIddles are a LOT easier to pick stuff out, or play what you hear in your head. For me, diatonics do not make sense. I can't think about what I"m going to do on the instrument. I have to feel it out. They can sound like they make sense on their own, just hearing them, but, getting from point A to point B is more intuition, based on lots of noodling, cursing, screeching, and small victories.
The bass side is a rhythmic accompaniment, and also a discordant partner half the time. Not necessarily on a multirow box, but certainly on a single row.
Mark,
I only have experience with the single row "Cajun" accordion, but , yes the distonic is a bit different.
You could think of it as an over grown harmonica.
Unlike other instruments, it is primarilly a "lead" instrument, and it will sound a little "plain" when played by itself. Kind of like playing lead guitar without any other accompliment.
Jude
The diatonic accordion was designed to be a one-man band. You should be able to play more than adequately without a backing band. Admittedly, you're limited to the keys you can play in and the chords you select but there's plenty of people who play in the European traditions who play brilliantly without extra backing.